Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: Vivian Hansen

  • Behind the Scenes: Interview with Vivian Hansen, Cover Designer for Finding Myself in Britain (Part 2)

    teapot JPEG

    The gifts I’ve received in the publishing process for Finding Myself in Britain have been breathtaking. Such as how the cover came about – I share the story of finding our designer, Vivian Hansen, in part one of this series. Only when I received Vivian’s email as she responded to my questions did I learn that she and I share our Christian faith – and a love of travel. How amazing to connect with this talented young artist! Read to the bottom of the post to see how to get in contact with her (especially if you’re involved in publishing) and to see more of her varied art – she works with oils, watercolors, sketching with pencil and others. In her words:

    I have been drawing as long as I can remember. When I was a child, I wrote and illustrated many stories, always loving how people would react and engage with the little worlds I created. I later enjoyed it as a kind of escape, much like reading a book. But to be honest, it wasn’t until I was about 17 that I realized I had a particular talent in art. I had a deep wanderlust throughout my youth (fueled by the mountains of books I lived inside of), which eventually led me to leave my tiny country town in southern Mississippi and go to live with a family in Ireland. It didn’t take long for the art professor there to find me drawing, and he invited me into his art class – the first I’d ever been in. He taught me the basics, and I delved into a whole universe that had been waiting for me. By the time I graduated, my mind was set on pursuing a creative career. It has been a long and winding road, but I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to study illustration.

    I was finishing up my last bit of art school when I found the contest for your book cover design. A friend of mine told me about the site, so I took a look around. Contest sites typically have a shady reputation in the professional art community for taking advantage of artists, and even reputable sites like 99Designs should be approached with caution. But as soon as I read the brief for Finding Myself in Britain, I had a rush of ideas. I picked up a pencil and started sketching. It’s a big risk to spend a great deal of time and effort on work that may not be fruitful, so I approached it with the idea of using it as a creative exercise. The brief was inspiring for me as a traveler, a bibliophile, a Christian, and a designer who likes a good challenge. It was clear that you were looking for something different, so I was happy to oblige!

    I was really surprised and delighted to learn that I’d won the contest! I called my mom right away and told some of my classmates, including the one who had introduced me to the site. I’ve had my work published in small things before, but this was going to be the most widely published work of mine to date. Most of all, I was so grateful for the opportunity to use my God-given talents on a faith based project. What a joy it is to use the talent and opportunity I’ve been blessed with to do the Lord’s work! I hope to contribute again to Christian publishing and continue to be a vessel for His work.

    vivian_hansen_findingmyselfinbritain_sketches1My first thoughts when I started sketching were about focusing on a more conceptual design than a decorative one. Book covers featuring original artwork in a clever way stand out in a sea of stock images, so I knew I wanted a strong image with meaning. At first I considered what it feels like to be “different” while in another country and how I might represent that in a unique way. I ended up with a drawing of a sunflower growing from a rose bush; the flower clearly isn’t native to that plot, but it stands out in a bright, bold, happy way. Other ideas centered around place. One that I was fond of featured lots of different shapes and styles of windows you might see around the world, with a little cartoon Amy perched happily in a window resembling a stone church.

    In the end, I was most drawn to a very simple but iconic image of a teapot with an American flag motif pouring Amy into a teacup decorated with the British flag. I think it presents the idea of instant immersion, maybe even culture shock, but in a funny, positive way (especially with help of the bright, playful colors). I hope it will draw readers in enough for them to read the back and discover what it’s all about – and from there, I’m sure they’ll be hooked!

    teacupLiterature and travel are still a big part of my life. I’m a big dreamer and adventurer, and it directly affects and inspires my work. I graduated at the end of summer and started making plans for my next journey, which has brought me to Spain. I travel cheaply by flying stand-by and finding unique accommodation; this time, I’m working part-time at the front desk of a hostel in Madrid in exchange for room and partial board. It’s an amazing way to get to know a place in a real way. After two months of travel, I’ll return to the U.S. for Thanksgiving and then pack my bags again for Costa Rica, where I’ll be visiting my boyfriend’s family for the first time. Each place I visit is full of treasures for the eye as well as stories to take with me. I have lived in Ireland, Japan, France, and now for a while in Spain, and each place leaves a huge mark on me. I change and grow a bit each time and share my own stories, culture, and experiences with the people I meet.

    By the start of 2016 I hope to start campaigning for greater amounts of freelance work. Where will I be? I have no idea. That’s the beauty of it. I’m at a peculiar time in my life that allows for these opportunities and, while I look forward to someday building my own family and having a place I call home, for now I am thankful for the chance to see the world and share it with others through my stories and art works.

    How can people connect with me? When I am based in the U.S., I open up my Etsy shop to sell prints of my work and occasionally original art work and other handmade things, and in early 2016 I will launch a Kickstarter campaign to get my children’s book published. I also have my website, a Facebook page and an Instagram account where I post things I’m working on currently, including my travel drawings. The best thing about being an artist is simply sharing my work with others, so I am glad for any platform I can use to connect with people!

    A Christmas card designed by Vivian. Check out her process on her website - fascinating.
    A Christmas card created by Vivian. Check out her process on her website – fascinating.
    I love the variety in her art.
    I love the variety in her art.
    Art in motion - watercolors at Lower Yellowstone Falls.
    Art in motion – watercolors at Lower Yellowstone Falls.
    Wonderfully fabulous Valentine's Day card.
    Wonderfully fabulous Valentine’s Day card.

  • Behind the Scenes: Cover Design for Finding Myself in Britain (Part 1)

    The winner! Illustrated and designed by Vivian Hansen.
    The winner! Illustrated and designed by Vivian Hansen.

    “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

    “A picture tells a thousand words.”

    In the case of my first book, I’m happy if you judge it by its cover, because it’s just so darn good. When I first received the design, I loved pulling it up on my phone and watching the person’s face as they saw at it for the first time. Again and again, they would flash a smile and often they’d exclaim in delight. Here’s part one in how the cover came to be.

    When I was a commissioning/acquisitions editor at two big corporate publishing houses, we had whole teams of designers working on the covers, designing them and/or hiring out artists or photographers to provide the original artwork and photographs. How many cover designs we’d receive per project would vary – sometimes we’d have three or four variations on a particular cover, but one Stateside designer was known for his huge creativity, giving us ten to fifteen completely different designs.

    Times have changed, although I suspect the massive publishers continue in this fashion. But Authentic Media, the publisher of Finding Myself in Britain, didn’t have its own design department in-house, so was able to explore other options. The MD, Steve Mitchell, is innovative and creative, and follows the publishing trends and has a sense of what’s new and what’s possible in this strange new world. I’m so glad I followed his lead throughout the process.

    The cover needs to be available about six months before publication, so the design process needs to start at least nine months before. I had previously shown Steve an amazing painting of our church that Steve Bjorkman had carefully crafted in a mind-blowingly rapid manner when he and his wife were visiting the UK one year, and Authentic-Steve wondered if a cover might emerge from it. Here’s one of the covers Authentic-Steve had designed with the painting by Artist-Steve, which although we thought was fun, we knew wasn’t exactly right.

    Artwork by Steve Bjorkman. One of his paintings does appear in my book, which delights me.
    Artwork by Steve Bjorkman. One of his paintings does appear in my book, which delights me.

    So Authentic-Steve committed instead to have the design created through 99 Designs. I had heard him speak of the good experience he’d had in the design of other books, such as Chris Juby’s @BibleIntro, so knew a little of how the website works. The publisher signs up for a package – bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. The higher the package, the more expensive (but still reasonable), and the more designs you have to choose from. After the contest starts, any interested designer who is signed up with 99 Designs can submit a design within the 7-day window. When the contest is closed, the publisher/author chooses a design and can ask for tweaks. The winning designer then receives the fee.

    I see a lot of benefits of this system, but admittedly they favor the publisher. One is having access to designers from all of the world. Another is the huge number and variety of designs that are submitted with only having to pay for a flat fee. But from the designers’ point of view, it’s a lot of work that you might not get paid for – I did feel bad for the stellar designs created that we didn’t use. Yet it gives designers the access to potential work that they’d otherwise not be considered for. For instance, we’d have never found the winning designer without this website.

    My publisher put together the cover brief (you can see it here), which was a short summary of the book (a couple of paragraphs and an outline of the contents) and then for the design elements, he said:

    We aren’t looking anything too twee or formulaic e.g. flags.

    I wanted to put down more suggestions about what ways to take the cover visually, but Steve rightly pushed back, saying, “You’ve got to trust the process.” This is where authors need good and wise publishers – we think we know what’s best for our book-baby, but we don’t. I’m so glad we weren’t directive, and trusted the designers to do what they’re good at – designing. (And yes, the winning design does employ flags!)

    We received 96 designs from 42 designers for the contest. Some of the covers made me cringe – one in particular made me think of 50 Shades of Britain – but many were excellent and a couple were outstanding. Of course, anything to do with art and creation is subjective, so what I thought was fabulous wasn’t always the same as what others thought. But we all agreed on the winning design.

    I don’t think I should cut and paste over some of the designs that didn’t get selected because of copyright issues, but you can see examples here and here. Most of the designs have been taken down, but you get a feel for the diversity of options we had. I liked the feel of #92 and #90, but they are more typical of what one would expect for my book; the winner simply outshone them. Several of the people at my publisher liked the cover by LilaM, but I thought it looked twee (US: cringey), and like a woman during the thirties or forties.

    In part two on behind the scenes of the cover design, I’ll interview the winner of the contest, Vivian Hansen.